Billed as the largest mangrove restoration programme in the world, a project in the Saloum Delta in western Senegal aims to undo decades of damage to a vital ecosystem, but critics say the scheme dispossesses the local community and amounts to little more than “ocean grab.”

Climate change (lower rainfall, rising sea levels, and harsh droughts) coupled with unsustainable human exploitation has seen some 40 percent of Senegal’s mangrove cover lost since the 1970s.

It’s a region of rich biodiversity: some 2,000 species of fish, molluscs, and crustaceans live among the roots and mud of the mangroves. For Ablaye Marone, who works as an volunteer guide and ranger in the national park that covers 76,000 of the delta’s 146,000 hectares, it’s a lot more than that.

He told IRIN that replanting schemes are “a question of survival.”

“We make a living only from mangroves,” he explained. “Take me for example. Aside from activities as a guard, I place beehives in the mangroves to collect honey. I make a lot of money doing this that allows me to make ends meet. If there were no more mangroves, there would be no more bees.”

Adjarata Diouf, who also lives in Marone’s village of Bagadadji, explained how the mangroves “provide an essential source of revenue for women here”.

“They offer ideal conditions for the reproduction of fish and shellfish. Our main economic activity is harvesting oysters, from which we make a significant revenue,” she told IRIN.

Salt extraction and eco-tourism are also important sources of income in the mangrove areas of Senegal, where hundreds of thousands of people live amid the maze of tributaries and river islands.

Unsustainable exploitation

Mangrove refers both to the range of trees and shrubs that grow in tidal,coastal swamps, and to the wider ecosystem where such vegetationdominates.

Many of the ways people make a living from the mangroves also cause irreversible damage. Some methods of collecting oysters and other molluscs involve cutting the underwater roots they cling to, while the mangrove trees’ branches are chopped down to be used as fuel for heating, cooking, and fish-smoking, as well as for construction material for houses, and to make agricultural tools and boats.

It is not only local residents who exploit the mangroves: the riches of the forests attract citizens from other parts of Senegal as well as countries such as Niger, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Guinea, and Guinea-Bissau.

Once mangroves disappear, livelihood opportunities dwindle.

“Before, each woman used to gather up to 10 kilos of seafood every time we went out in our boat,” said Diouf. “But now, it’s all we can do to collect five kilos. Our revenues have fallen dramatically.”

Because they absorb carbon at up to 10 times the rate of rainforests, mangroves are increasingly seen as a valuable, and sometimes lucrative, weapon in international efforts to mitigate climate change.

One replanting programme in the Saloum Delta, reputedly the largest such initiative in the world, has seen 79 million trees planted and 7,920 hectares of mangrove forest restored.

It is a project of Livelihoods Funds, a Paris-based “social business” bankrolled by 10 major companies including Danone, Crédit Agricole, Michelin and Hermès. By funding the planting of mangrove shoots, which is conducted in partnership with the Senegalese NGO Océanium, “investors receive carbon credits with high social value, which they can use to offset part of the emissions they cannot avoid”, according to the Livelihoods Funds website.

Investors expect the 30-year carbon-crediting programme to generate half a million tonnes of carbon offsets over its lifetime. As well as counting against investors’ own emissions, they can be traded and sold to other companies or governments seeking to comply with emissions’ caps.

The more prominent aims of this mammoth project, in which some 300,000, mostly female, residents of 350 communities have taken part, is to protect arable land from salt contamination, restore rice paddies, and replenish fish stocks by up to 18,000 additional tonnes a year.

But Marie-Christine Cormie-Salem, a French academic who has spent 35 years studying mangrove ecosystems across the world and whose field research on the Saloum Delta was published in August, is far from convinced.

“The charter signed between the external operators and the rural communities stipulates that for 30 years the replanted mangrove is controlled by the donors (i.e. Danone) and henceforth forbidden for any use,” she wrote.

Local “harvesters no longer have the right to exploit the reforested areas and are [dispossessed] of their land.”

Instead, residents are offered the “mere hope-promise that the densification and extension of the mangrove forest might allow their grandchildren to have access to it in an uncertain future.”

Livelihoods Funds did not respond to IRIN’s request for comment, but Cormier-Salem’s findings are in line with broader critiques of so-called “blue-carbon” offset schemes (“blue” because they focus on CO2 stored in coastal ecosystems).

“Increasingly, conservation efforts that purportedly align the needs of the poor, profit interests and environmental concerns are one of the main processes through which ocean grabbing takes place,” Mads Barbesgaard, a Swedish geographer, wrote in a paper published by the Transnational Institute, entitled “Blue Carbon: Ocean Grabbing in Disguise?”

“Instead of being a win-win for all actors involved, this commodification and marketisation [of blue carbon ecosystems] further entrenches power inequalities and facilitates grabbing of resources and/or expulsion of local communities.”

Everyone joining in

Whether they support the largescale involvement of multinational corporations or not, the local residents of the Saloum Delta are determined to do their bit to keep their ecosystem thriving long into the future. Like his brother Ablaye, Mamadou Marone, a primary school teacher (and also a part-time beekeeper), has taken part in a small-scale reforestation project covering Bagadadji and three nearby villages.

“We are aware of the effects of climate change on our lives,” he told IRIN. “When we were children, the mangrove was much bigger. It has drastically reduced. As a result, some species of fish and crustacean have disappeared.” The Marone brothers joined hundreds of neighbours in the project, which has added five hectares of mangrove cover around each of the four villages, 20 new hectares in total.

“It is our duty to somehow conserve the mangrove forest, to keep it for future generations,” said Nicolas Gomis, a lieutenant in the National Parks Authority. “The local population is very pleased about the mangrove restoration projects.”

This small-scale project was carried out in partnership with the National Parks Service, the region’s environment agency, and Wetlands International, a non-profit based in the Netherlands.

Wetlands International has taken pains to partner with local authorities and communities, including by helping to set up a knowledge- and best practice-sharing Mangrove Platform with the county government. The multinationals are being encouraged to go further down that road.

The writer is a freelance journalist in Senegal.

Author’s Note: This is part of a special project that explores the impact of climate change on the food security and livelihoods of smallscale farmers in Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and Zimbabwe.

“It happened as if it was a dream,” says Gabriel Fattah Manga, recalling the day his world came tumbling down around him, and his life changed forever.

Early last Monday morning Manga, 25, was preparing to head to work as a carpenter in the Regent area of Freetown, Sierra Leone, when he real- ized something was badly wrong.

“The land was trembling and the whole area was trembling with me,” he tells CNN, his eyes still red-rimmed with emotion. “I came out to see what was happening. I saw water going down…When I moved up to three meters, I saw this whole mountain coming.”

A massive mudslide, sparked by heavy rains and flooding in an area that has suffered years of deforestation, was speeding down the slopes of Mount Sugar Loaf, towards his home in one of the makeshift shanty towns that dotted the hillside.

Manga survived, but an entire generation of his family was swept away in the devastation. Gabriel Fattah Manga holds a poster showing the family members he lost in the mud-slide that hit Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown.

“I lost my mother Kumba, who I love so much,” he says. “I lost my brother John — I was in love with my brother. I lost his wife Jeneba, their baby Daniel, who is five months old. My elder brother also lost his two children.”

Manga now sleeps on a bench outside the single-story brown building his surviving family members call home. Pasted on the wall above the bench is a picture of his mother and the members of his family he has lost.

“I lost my family, I lost my people. I lost my place,” he says, a weary, resigned look on his face. “All has gone.” Mariama Koroma, 23, sits across the street from Manga’s home, outside the small building where she and some 50 other women and children are sheltering, clutching a photograph of her five-month-old niece Mariatu.

Mariatu and her mother, Koroma’s older sister Fanta, 35, have been missing since a tide of sodden red earth swept away their home. The family has been unable to find any sign of them where their house used to stand.

“When I go there, I didn’t see her house. We’ve driven everywhere and we can’t find her body,” she says. “The bodies are under there. My mother is now unconscious. I’m worried that she will not make it.”

Inside the dark, cramped shelter, Wuiatu Kondeh sits on a still-wrapped mattress. Clutching her two-year-old daughter, she weeps as she tells of how she escaped from the mudslide, only to realize she couldn’t find her husband, Lansana, 25, a motorbike taxi driver.

“We saw the hill coming down and we ran away,” she says, remembering fragments and details of that day.

“Someone carried my child. I didn’t have my slippers.” “Later, I looked for my hus- band and I didn’t see him,” she says, sobbing quietly, her face etched with pain. “I didn’t see my uncle … my sister, she lost two of her children. I didn’t see her again.”

Kondeh and her husband had only moved to the Mount Sugar Loaf area in June, after saving up to rent a home there. With that home destroyed, she and her baby daughter are left to sleep on the floor of this shared build- ing.

Outside, the search continues, with rescue workers digging through the dirt for bodies, the stench of decomposing remains hanging in the air.

Please for help, support

Sierra Leone faces a steep road to recovery. A small na- tion of 7.4 million people, it has been beset with more than its fair share of tragedies in the past.

It now has 20,000 displaced people — around 5,000 of whom are children — to care for and rehouse, according to presidential spokesman Abdulai Bayraytay.

For now, some are being looked after by aid agencies such as Unicef. Inside one of the NGO’s tents in Regent, children play, seemingly as carefree as kids the world over, but look closer, and they bear the scars and scabs that tell of their struggle to survive the mud-slides.

Young children who survived the mudslides eat food provided by aid groups in Freetown, but some bear the scars of the mudslide.

Bayraytay has appealed for more international aid — medical supplies, shelters, blankets — to help Freetown recover. He warns there’s a high risk of cholera as people are still living in the devastated areas, without clean water and sani- tation, and says the country cannot manage on its own. “We are overstretched,” he says. “We are just on the verge of recuperating after Ebola and the civil war. We are overwhelmed.

“Sierra Leone is a small country with a small econ- omy and we cannot do this alone … we appeal very pas- sionately to the world to come to (our) aid.”

That’s a plea echoed by Gabriel Fattah Manga, who says those like him who lost so many loved ones in the mudslide are struggling to know how to cope.

“I have cried a lot. I have nothing to do more because they are gone,” he says. “I will now look to what God will do for me.”

“For now, I’m in the street. I have nowhere to go. We need people to help us. If they can hear us, let them help us.” That’s a plea echoed by Gabriel Fattah Manga, who says those like him who lost so many loved ones in the mudslide are struggling to know how to cope.

“I have cried a lot. I have nothing to do more because they are gone,” he says. “I will now look to what God will do for me.

“For now, I’m in the street. I have nowhere to go. We need people to help us. If they can hear us, let them help us.”

Ghana is at a point of mortgaging the Bauxite deposit in the Atiwa forest and Nyinahin for the People’s Republic of China for some $15billion. Good as it may sound, it appears Ghana in our quest to mortgage the Bauxite deposits is losing sight of the fact that we are also mortgaging the livelihoods of close to 5 million Ghanaians. Ghana’s senior Minister is on record to have said in an interview with the BBC that mortgaging the bauxite deposits can create in excess of 100,000 jobs for the many unemployed youth of the country.

While employment is good for any country, who is also talking about the risk factors involved in creating jobs at the expense of a standing forest that cares for well over 5 million Ghanaians and when taken good care of can in itself create over a million jobs.

The Atiwa Range Forest Reserve measuring 23,663 ha is part of an ecosystem known as the Upper Guinea Forest. The Atiwa Range is only one of two such forests left remaining in Ghana. This forest reserve was created in 1926, deemed a Special Biological Protection Area in 1994, one of Ghana’s 30 Globally Significant Biodiversity Areas (GSBAs) in 1999 and in 2001 was listed as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by BirdLife International.

Not only is the Atiwa Range important in biological diversity but it also provides the headwater for three major river systems, the Ayensu, Densu and Birim rivers. These rivers are the most important source of domestic and industrial water for local communities as well as Ghana’s major populations such as its capital Accra. The Senior Minister in an attempt to justify the need to mortgage is again on record to have said that the bauxite can be exploited without destroying the Birim River because of the location of the bauxite deposit and the location of the Birim River. The Million Cedi question then is, ‘if not the Birim River, how about the Densu and Ayensu Rivers?’

Mr. Andres McKinley, a mining and water specialist at Central American University in San Salvador says “mining is an industry whose primary and first victim is water.” It is an undenied fact that water is the biggest casualty when it comes to mining and for anybody to think a water body in a mining location will not suffer leaves so much to be desired.

But even if not for the water bodies, what about climate change issues? International Tropical Timber Organisation (ITTO) reports that Ghana has a deforestation rate of 2.19% where as experts say, a deforestation rate of 1% is alarming.

WACAM States that Environmental Degradation ac- counts for about 10% of Ghana’s GDP. A situation which is already worrying. The fact is that there cannot be a mining activity in a forest without deforestation and forest degradation with Biodiversity been a casualty.

A forest is a terrestrial unit of living organisms (plants, ani- mals and microorganisms) all interacting among themselves and with the environment (soil, climate, water and light) in which they live. The environmental ‘common denominator’ of forest ecological community is a tree. The trees faithfully obeying the ecological cycles of energy, water, carbon and nutrients (WACAM).

Wilson (1988) estimates that the number of species in a forest falls between 5 and 30 million with some scientists estimating even higher to about 50million.

Mining the Atiwa forest will therefore mean Ghana losing all of these benefits it derives from the forest.

According to the analysis of AROCHA, bauxite extraction would reduce the value of the Atiwa Forest for water con- sumption by $386.9 million over 30 years, and for agricultural water by $22.7 million with estimated economic gains from bauxite which is smaller in comparison.

Making Economic Gains Out Of Atiwa Forest Without Mining It.
According to the Chief Executive of the Forestry Commission, Mr Kwadwo Owusu-Afriyie, “If you look at the long-term benefits of preserving the forest(Atiwa) as a national park vis-a-vis mining the bauxite, the ad- vantages of preserving the forest far outweigh whatever initial benefit that would accrue to us as a nation from the mining.”

“When we have a national park like what is in South Africa and elsewhere, you go there and you see that people are indeed benefitting. I am more, particularly, interested in the three rivers (Birim, Densu and Ayensu) that serve about seven million people in the country.

If we are not careful, so many of us are going to die as a result of thirst because of the pollution of the rivers, so it is important we preserve and conserve it,” Mr Owusu- Afriyie said this when he met officials of the United States and The Netherland embassies in Ghana at Kyebi.

Again, Ghana stands to benefit from REDD+ for protecting the forest. The basis behind REDD+ is that developing countries should be financially compensated for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, conservation, the sustainable management of forests and the enhancement of forest carbon stocks. Protection of the Atiwa forest reduces deforestation and forest degradation which REDD+ calls on developed countries to compensate developing countries that protect their forest.

So why is nobody talking about REDD+, who cares about climate change and what about the other economic benefits from biodiversity in the forest.

Would all of these not benefit us as a country and employ more youth in the preserving and maintaining the forest and making it a National Park than this attempt to mortgage it?

Ghana can do better.

Kwasi Frimpong

SayItRight

0201833775

gilbfrimp@gmail.com Twitter: @qfrimp

The writer is a student leader, a youth activist and a journalist

]]>http://amandlanews.com/mortgaging-atiwa-forest-who-cares-about-climate-change-biodiversity-and-redd/feed/0CBC Investigation: Cell Phones Violate Government Radiation Limitshttp://amandlanews.com/cbc-investigation-cell-phones-violate-government-radiation-limits/
http://amandlanews.com/cbc-investigation-cell-phones-violate-government-radiation-limits/#respondMon, 19 Jun 2017 15:38:06 +0000http://amandlanews.com/?p=5345An independently commissioned investigation by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) found that when cell phones were radiation tested in the ways devices are commonly used—such as in the pocket, bra or lap—the radiation detected inside the user’s body surpassed the government allowable maximum level. In this week’s CBC award-winning Marketplace program entitled “The secret inside your cellphone,” acclaimed reporter Wendy Mesley announced results from a US government certified testing laboratory. The investigation found that three popular phone models—iPhone, Galaxy, and Samsung—are below regulated maximums for radiation when they are tested at a specified distance away from the body and head. However, the CBC program revealed that when phones are tested directly against the body, the radiation is multiplied by three to four times and exceeds government limits.The CBC found most people are unaware that all cell phone manufacturers’ instructions specify that there should be a distance between the phone and the user’s body in order not to be exposed to untested levels of radiation.

CBC conducted an independent survey of more than 11,000 Canadians to determine if the public knew about these instructions to distance phones from their bodies. The survey found more than 80 percent “had no clue” and 67 percent admitted they carry their phones against their bodies. “The public needs to be informed that cell phones are not safe as they are typically used. Remember these outdated guidelines were set for a large male adult and do
not take into account the millions of children regularly keeping such devices on their bodies for hours at a time. We have known for a decade that phones violate radiation guidelines when tested in the ways they typically are used,” stated Devra Davis, PhD, MPH, President of Environmental Health Trust (EHT), who was featured in the CBC investigation. Davis points out, “Along with over a dozen other countries, the American Academy of Pediatrics and Consumer Reports have issued recommendations to reduce exposure to cell phones.” Davis further states, “Even if cell phones met current guidelines, those guidelines do not ensure safety especially for children.” “There are dozens and dozens of studies that we presented to Health Canada that show harm can occur at levels below Canada’s guidelines,” stated Frank Clegg, former President of Microsoft Canada, urging for updates to Canada’s highly contested Safety Code 6.

Clegg now heads Canadians for Safe Technology, a notfor-profit, volunteer-based organization striving for healthier communities by educating about dangerous levels of radiation from technology. He referred to experimental studies showing damage to sperm, pregnancy and the nervous system following exposures to cell phone radiation, noting that men who keep phones in their pockets have significantly poorer sperm quality and quantity. “The most embarrassing thing about this investigation,” said Clegg, “is that the Federal Government already knows the manufacturers have fine-print warnings on
the cell phones. These warnings need to come to the front of the box in big letters where we can see them, and at the point of sale where we buy our phones. If manufacturers know they fail the safety standards, if the federal government knows, if our national broadcaster knows, then it should not be kept secret from the person buying the product.” When CBC Marketplace asked for comment, Apple referred to advice inside their phones about their specified separation distances and stated, “We have no comment to add to your story.” “Millions of children use cell phones and wireless devices every day. Many people carry cell phones in their jeans pocket tight against their body. Many women tuck cell phones in the bra or spandex pants they wear. People have a right to know that all wireless devices—not only cell phones but cordless home phones, tablets and many other wireless devices have instructions from the manufacturer about separation distances to put at least that distance between the transmitting antennae and the person so that radiation levels inside the body added by the phone are not higher than government regulations,” stated Davis.

Davis recently authored an article about the Maryland State Advisory Council’s recommendations to restrict WiFi in school, published in The Baltimore Sun. Davis notes that tablets and other wireless devices held directly on laps also will likely violate the tested distance as most devices are regulatory tested at least 8 inches away from the body, adding that the arms of many young children do not extend to that length. The CBC Marketplace episode takes viewers to Berkeley, California, Washington, DC and several locations in Canada to see what government, research, and technology experts say, and what the public thinks. The CBC program features Berkeley’s Right To Know Law unanimously passed in 2015 requiring cell phone retailers to provide a notice to their customers that “If you carry or use your phone in a pants or shirt pocket or tucked into a bra when the phone is ON and connected to a wireless network, you may exceed the federal guidelines for exposure to RF radiation.” The CBC program showed the importance of such a law, which is being defended pro bono by Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig, former Director of the Safra Center for Ethics. The cell phone industry attorney in this case, Theodore Olson, has also represented the tobacco firms. Cell phone radiation concern made headlines earlier this month when a court ordered the California Department of Public Health to release suppressed advisory guidelines on “Cell Phones and Health” to University of Berkeley Professor Dr. Joel Moskowitz. Originally drafted in 2010, the released California Public Health Cell Phones guidance states, “Health officials are concerned about possible health effects from cell phone EMFs because some recent studies suggest that long-term cell phone use may increase the risk of brain cancer and other health problems.”

A decade ago, in 2007, the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute was the first US
medical institution to issue warnings about the health effects of cell phone radiation, and the Director Dr. Herberman sent a memo to the Cancer Institute’s 3,000 faculty and staff. The fine print distance warnings were discussed in 2008 and 2009 US Congressional hearings on the health effects of cell phone radiation. “The findings of the NTP constitute important signals that there are very serious health issues tied with microwave radiation from cell phones and other devices,” adds Ronald Melnick, PhD, a Senior Advisor to the EHT and formerly a Senior Scientist with the US government’s National Toxicology Program. “At this point, the question is not whether cell phone radiation causes cancer, but how we can best reduce exposures. Regulatory agencies should make strong recommendations for consumers to take precautionary measures and avoid close contact with their cell phones (use speaker, wired headset, text–not while driving), and especially avoid use of cell phones by children.” “Our government rests on the freely given consent of the governed. The Right to Know should trump the Right to Profit,” stated Davis, pointing to newly proposed US Right to Know legislation in Massachusetts, “Our government has an obligation to revise its outdated exposure standards and ensure people are informed.”

Fuvemeh, one of Ghana’s coastal villages, is vanishing because of coastal erosion.

Waves have taken whole parts of the village with them into the sea. What was once a thriving fishing community was three miles from the coast a few years back. Now the waves are just a few feet away. “This used to be a very beautiful village – a lot of co- conut trees, sea turtles, sea gulls, dolphins, sharks and whatnot,” recalled local resi- dent Frank Kofigah.

“It’s been horrible. As a result of climate change we are suffering.” The only school in the area and a temporary replacement have also been washed away by the waves, resident Bright Agbeko told the Ghanaian news site MyJoyOnLine.

Fuvemeh was once a thriving community of 2,500 people, supported by fishing and coconut plantations that are now completely underwater. But in the past two decades, climate change and industrial activity — such as sand min- ing and the construction of dams and deep-sea ports, which trap sediments and prevent them from reaching the coastline — have accelerated coastal erosion here, observed Matteo Faggoto of Foreign Policy magazine: “Gradually but inexorably, the ocean has swallowed up hundreds of feet of coastline, drowning the coconut plantations and eventually sweeping away houses,” Faggoto said. Thousands of communities along the western coast of sub-Saharan Africa, from Mauritania to Cameroon, are at risk of being washed away. Sea levels around the world are expected to rise by more than two-and-a-half feet by the end of the century, but they are expected to rise faster than the global average in West Africa, according to the West African Economic and Monetary Union.

Kwasi Appeaning Addo, a professor in the University of Ghana’s department of marine and fisheries sciences, shared his fears. “In West Africa, infrastructure and economic activities are cen- tered along the coastal region, so as sea levels continue to rise, it threatens our very ex- istence and source of income. We are sitting on a time bomb.” Residents of Fuve- meh have been appealing to government for a sea defense wall to protect the coastal belt as they not ready to relocate as suggested by the Munici- pal Assembly and Member of Parliament Clemence Kofi Humado. He warned that should residents continue to live in the affected areas, their lives may be endangered.

“If we can’t find a balance between our insatiable appetite for modernity and allowing nature to replenish itself,” said Fredua Agyeman of Ghana’s Ministry of Envi- ronment, Science, Technol- ogy, and Innovation, “we will always run into problems, no matter the advancements in modern science or engineering.”

Hints of an early exodus of modern humans from Africa may have been detected in living humans. People outside Africa overwhelmingly trace their descent to a group that left the continent 60,000 years ago. Now, analysis of nearly 500 human genomes appears to have turned up the weak signal of an earlier migration. But the results suggest this early wave of Homo sapiens all but vanished, so it does not drastically alter prevailing theories of our origins. And two separate studies in the academic journal Nature failed to find the signature of this migration. But Luca Pagani, Mait Metspalu and colleagues describe hints of this pioneer group in their analysis of DNA in people from the Oceanian nation of Papua New Guinea. After evolving in Africa 200,000 years ago, modern humans are thought to have crossed through Egypt into the Arabian Peninsula some 60,000 years ago. Until now, genetic evidence has shown that today’s non-Africans could trace their origins to this fateful dispersal. Yet we had known for some time that groups of modern humans made forays outside their “homeland” before 60,000 years ago. Fossilised remains found at the Qafzeh and Es Skhul caves in Israel had been dated to between 120,000 and 90,000 years ago. Then in 2015, scientists working in Daoxian, south China, reported the discovery of modern human teeth dating to at least 80,000 years ago. An additional piece of evidence recently came from traces of Homo sapiens DNA in a female Neanderthal from Siberia’s Altai mountains. The analysis suggested that modern humans and Neanderthals had begun mixing around 100,000 years ago – presumably outside Africa. In order to reconcile this evidence with the genetic data from living populations, the prevailing view advanced by scientists was of a wave of pioneer settlement that ended in extinction. But the latest results suggest some descendents of these trailblazers survived long enough to get swept up in the later, ultimately more successful migration that led to the settling of Oceania. “The first instance when we thought we were seeing something was when we used a technique called MSMC, which allows you to look at split times of populations,” said co-author Dr Mait Metspalu, director of the Estonian Biocentre in Tartu, told BBC News.

His colleague and first author Dr Luca Pagani, also from the Estonian Biocentre, added: “All the other Eurasians we had were very homogenous in their split times from Africans. “This suggests most Eurasians diverged from Africans in a single event… about 75,000 years ago, while the [Papua New Guinea] split was more ancient – about 90,000 years ago. So we thought there must be something going on.” It was already known that Papua New Guineans, along with other populations from Oceania and Asia, derive a few per cent of their ancestry from Denisovans, an enigmatic sister group to the Neanderthals. The researchers tried to remove this component, but were left with a third chunk of the genome which was different from the Denisovan segment and the overwhelming majority which represents the main out of Africa migration 60,000 years ago. “This third component had intermediate properties which we concluded must have originated as an independent expansion out of Africa about 120,000 years ago,” Dr Pagani told BBC News. “We believe this makes up at least 2% of the genome of modern [Papua New Guineans].” In a separate paper in the same edition of Nature, Prof David Reich and Swapan Mallick, both from Harvard Medical School, along with colleagues analysed 300 genomes from 142 different populations around the world. They found evidence of early splits between populations within Africa, along with a single dispersal that gave rise to non-African populations. But they found no signs of substantial ancestry from an early African exodus in Papua New Guineans and other related populations such as indigenous Australians. They conclude that, if the genetic legacy of such a migration survives in these populations, it can’t comprise more than a few per cent of their genomes. A similar conclusion is reached in a third study on the genomes of indigenous Australian by the University of Copenhagen’s Eske Willerslev and Anna-Sapfo Malaspinas, along with colleagues. David Reich told BBC News: “In our paper, we exclude more than about 2% ancestry in Australians, Papuans, and New Guineans from an early dispersal population, and our best estimate is 0%. “I am a bit concerned that poorly modelled features of the methods used by Pagani and colleagues may have contributed to a false-positive signal of early dispersal ancestry in them.

However, an alternative possibility is that the truth is around 2%, and this might just be consistent with all three studies.” Commenting on the Reich Lab study, Dr Metspalu told BBC News: “They do not detect an early Out of Africa, but they also do not reject it as long as it is just a few per cent in modern humans.” Dr Pagani added: “All three papers all reach the same conclusions. That in Eurasians and also [Papua New Guineans] – the majority of their genomes come from the same major migration.” Prof Chris Stringer, from London’s Natural History Museum, who was not involved with the genomic studies, commented: “The papers led by Mallick and by Malaspinas favour a single exit from Africa less than 80,000 years ago giving rise to all extant nonAfricans, while that led by Pagani favours an additional and earlier exit more than 100,000 years ago, traces of which they claim can still be found in Australasians. “Unfortunately, the signs of past interbreeding with a Denisovan-like archaic population which are found at a level of about 4% in extant Australasians, according to the Malaspinas paper, complicate interpretations, as well as the possibility that there may have been yet other ancient interbreedings which are so far poorly understood.”

The brain knows instinctively how to predict when accidents are about to happen If you’ve never been particularly good at physics in school, it might make you feel better to know that at the very least, your brain comes with a built-in “physics engine.”

In a new study published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists have located a set of brain areas that become active when people predict how objects move in the world based on physical laws. Granted, your physics intuition is not going to help you very much in solving textbook physics problems involving quantum mechanics or planetary motion. But it does something arguably more important: by instantly carrying out physics calculations, it allows you to deal with the physical world in daily life in numerous ways—from walking more carefully on slippery ground on a rainy day to catching a falling stack of dishes to filling up a plastic bag with just enough items so it doesn’t break. It’s also what makes you really nervous when looking at this photo: And what helps you pick just the right fruit from the pile without causing an embarrassing scene at the grocery store: Oh, and it helps you play Jenga well.

“It’s hard to appreciate just what a role physical reasoning plays in your daily life until you start paying attention to the things that you do,” Jason Fischer, a cognitive scientist at Johns Hopkins University and co-author of the study, told The Huffington Post. To find where these physics simulations run in the brain, Fischer and his colleagues at MIT asked 12 people to watch a series of videos of an unsteady tower of blocks. In some trials the participants had to pay attention to just the visual information and answer how many blocks were blue and how many were yellow. In other trials, they had to predict which way the blocks would fall if the tower collapsed. Here you can watch an example of this game and test your own physical intuitions: When the participants tried to predict the unfolding of physical events, several brain regions activated on the brain scans. Additional experiments revealed the same brain areas light up on the scan even when people passively watch video that involves a lot of physical actions such as rolling and colliding objects. These regions were found in the premotor cortex and the supplementary motor area, the areas thought to be involved in planning actions such as reaching to grab objects. The findings suggest that physics intuition and action planning are “intimately linked in the brain,” Fischer said in a press release.

“We believe this might be because infants learn physics models of the world as they hone their motor skills, handling objects to learn how they behave.” Previous research probing physics intuition in infants has revealed that babies follow a systematic time course during the first year of life in which they acquire an understanding about different kinds of physical relationships in the world. Take two simple objects, for example. First babies learn the objects have to be touching each other to have any physical effects on one another. A bit after that they learn that an object has to be actually on top of another to be supported by it. Then they learn about the importance of an object’s center of mass and other properties, further deepening their implicit knowledge of physical laws. A lot of other animals, too, likely have sophisticated physics engines. “From a standpoint of survival it might be even more critical to animals that it is to us,” Fischer said. “Animals need to know what surfaces they can jump onto that can support them. They know they can’t walk on water and have to go around it. Animals are really good at these kinds of basic stuff.”

Bahar Gholipour is a Senior Writer at The Huffington Post

]]>http://amandlanews.com/4954/feed/0HEALTHCARE IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD: GHANA Archives – Hire Nurses Bloghttp://amandlanews.com/healthcare-in-the-developing-world-ghana-archives-hire-nurses-blog/
http://amandlanews.com/healthcare-in-the-developing-world-ghana-archives-hire-nurses-blog/#respondWed, 11 May 2016 19:46:54 +0000http://amandlanews.com/?p=4724Akwaaba! In Ghana, the word akwaaba is widely used as a welcoming greeting. Welcome to Ghana, and a look at the state of healthcare in this developing nation. In this series, I will be describing different facets of today’s healthcare system in Ghana, from the small rural village clinic to the most prestigious teaching hospital in the country. I hope you enjoy a glimpse into this important part of life in Ghana.
Part 2: The Challenge of Providing Healthcare in a Remote Village
Lake Volta, the largest man-made lake in the world, was formed by damming the mighty Volta River. This hydroelectric plant provides the country’s electricity.
Today we’re moving from Ghana’s Eastern Region north of the capital city of Accra, to the Volta Region. The Volta Region lies in the eastern-most part of Ghana along Lake Volta and the Volta River, and shares a border with Togo, the neighboring country east of Ghana. Dogbekope village is near the Togo border, close to the ocean to the south, and bordered on the west by the Keta Lagoon. The village was founded by my husband’s great-great grandfather during slavery times, and was intentionally situated in a remote and hidden area so that residents would be safe from capture. That was a brilliant idea at the time, but in modern times the seclusion of the village causes some real challenges to healthcare. To arrive at the village by the shortest route requires a four-wheel drive vehicle, or a motorbike, or you’ll quickly be stuck in deep sand.

The approach to the village along the sandy shore of the Keta Lagoon, a huge saline lake that provides one of the main means of income for this region – harvesting salt.
Daily life for Dogbekope’s approximately one thousand residents is a struggle, in part due to the lack of sustainable employment. Salt is harvested only during the four-month dry season; the remaining eight months of the year are spent growing a few crops that can be raised in the sandy, slightly salty soil. The other major source of income is weaving, a traditional craft of great beauty. Like many handicrafts, the time spent and the resulting work of art does not earn the craftsperson much by way of income. Other people in the village earn a limited livelihood selling prepared foods, or maintain small businesses like “drinking spots” or little dry goods stores. The simple lack of disposable income provides another challenge to helping people in need of healthcare.

Dogbekope Clinic
Dogbekope has a small “community-based health provider service” – the lowest level of organized healthcare in Ghana. The clinic was founded by Joseph Waklatsi, a Ghanaian ex-patriot physician residing in the United States, whose family comes from the village, funded by donations and staffed by American volunteers. Some years ago, the government picked up the project and now staffs the clinic with two Community Health Officers. I was lucky enough to be able to interview Philimon Ametorwodufia on a slow morning at the clinic.

Mr. Ametorwodufia, a trained Community Health Officer (the equivalent of a nurse practitioner in the U.S.), explained Ghana’s healthcare system, “There are different levels of healthcare. We’re a ‘level A’ – meaning our clinic is staffed by nurses and by law can only treat certain illnesses. To become a ‘level B1’ would involve expanding the clinic to provide a labor and delivery room, another examination room, and a small laboratory for basic lab tests. Then the government would give us more support through more highly trained staff and allow us to prescribe additional medications.”

Bulletin board showing the major public health concerns the clinic watches out for.
At just shy of three months at the clinic, Mr. Ametorwodufia is already feeling the frustration of knowing how to diagnose and treat common illnesses but being prevented from doing so by government regulations. “We are really a monitoring site for highly contagious public health issues like cholera, yellow fever, and Ebola. If someone comes in with symptoms of one of these, or other, severe diseases, our protocol is to notify the health officer at the closest hospital and they are supposed to send someone out immediately to rule out the presence of these illnesses. Last week someone came in with a possible measles infection. We followed protocol but the disease control officer never showed up. Fortunately, it wasn’t measles and the person recovered.” As mentioned previously, getting in and out of Dogbekope is a challenge – so imagine being severely ill and needing to be transported on the back of a motorbike for about an hour’s journey to the hospital! Yet this is what would happen if a person had a communicable disease that couldn’t be treated in-house.
Pregnant women face a similar transportation issue when they go into labor. If they choose to deliver at a hospital, they have to ride on a motorbike behind the driver, with their support person in back of them – yes, that’s right, three people on a motorbike bumping over rough roads. “It happens frequently that the woman delivers the baby on the side of the road – she doesn’t reach medical assistance in time,” shared Mr. Ametorwodufia. “Most women in the village will deliver their baby at home with the services of one of the elder women in the village as midwife. If we could expand the clinic to include a labor and delivery room, and a qualified midwife could live onsite, it would be of great benefit to the women in the village.”

Chart of government-supplied vaccines and vitamins for children
The clinic provides well-baby checkups and childhood immunizations, the vaccine provided by the United States and distributed by the Ghana Health Service. Babies receive a complete round of vaccinations starting at birth up to 11 years of age – around ten different immunizations plus Vitamin A and an iodine supplement. All the immunizations are provided free of charge. The clinic staff also go into the schools to assess the welfare and health of the children, as well as making home visits to check on the elderly in the community.

There have been no confirmed cases of Ebola in Ghana, but health officials continue to be vigilant.
Paying for services at the clinic is one of the main barriers to village residents seeking out medical care, even when seriously ill. The clinic has not yet qualified to accept the Ghana national health insurance, so all services are “cash and carry.” The minimal cost of 6 Ghana cedis for a consultation and 12 Ghana cedis for any medication (a total of about five U.S. dollars at today’s exchange rate) may be all the patient has earned that day – money that will go to feed the family. Mr. Ametorwodufia explained that even with health insurance, the cost would only go down a few Ghana cedis and would still be prohibitive for most people. “As an example, if a person has malaria, we can treat the beginning symptoms to prevent the illness becoming more severe. But if the patient won’t come to the clinic, and the malaria progresses to the acute stage, we can’t treat it and the patient has to be transported to the hospital for treatment.”

Health initiatives to protect people from the effects of climate change.
Traditional healing methods, including the use of local medicinal plants, is another avenue of treatment some will seek out. The interplay between traditional healing and “western” medicine is a fascinating subject and one that I will explore in future articles.
You can help support the work of this little village clinic in several ways:
• Donate over the counter medications such as ibuprofen, aspirin, paracetamol (Tylenol and generics), antibiotic ointment, eye drops, antacid, diarrhea control pills, diphenhydramine (Benadryl and generics) or other antihistamines such as chlorphenamine or related meds (Dimetapp, etc.), cough and cold meds (including children’s liquids if available) as well as multivitamin and mineral supplements for adults and children.
• Donations of antibiotics, specifically amoxicillin, ciprofloxacillin and flucloxacillin and antimalarial medications Artemether/Lumefantrine and Artesunate/Amodiaquine (medications prescribed for uncomplicated malaria) are also greatly needed. Donated medications can be given out to patients free of charge, whereas the government-supplied medications incur a charge that most patients cannot afford.
• Basic medical supplies like good quality stethoscopes and blood pressure cuffs – even used ones – can be put to good use. The clinic is also greatly in need of items like digital thermometers, surgical gloves, disposable examination gloves, gauze rolls and bandages, cotton, adhesive tape, and face masks.
• If your hospital or clinic is updating your equipment, particularly basic lab equipment, consider donating your used items (if in good working order).
• Volunteer your time if you’re a licensed practitioner.
A project to raise funds to expand the clinic is in the planning stages. If you’d like to be kept informed about this project, please contact me at abena.sara@batiksforlife.com . Also, if you’re able to donate any of the above-mentioned items, please contact me for an address to send it to.
As part of the effort to improve healthcare in Dogbekope, Batiks for Life is donating 10% of income from sales of our scrubs toward medications and the building fund. Please visit our online shop at www.batiksforlife.com/shop to order.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Sara Corry lives in Aburi, Eastern Region, Ghana. She owns a US-registered business, Batiks for Life LLC (www.batiksforlife.com) which manufactures medical scrubs using the traditional batik fabric of Ghana. These uniquely beautiful scrubs have earned praise for their design, comfort and quality and are 100% made in Ghana by seamstresses and tailors earning a living wage. She is happy to receive orders through the online shop, and is branching out into custom orders and wholesale. She and her partner have recently begun a campaign to raise funds to expand a village health clinic, and 10% of income from sales of Batiks for Life products supports this effort. Sara is an executive director and featured author for the sustainable fashion website “Trusted Clothes” (http://www.trustedclothes.com/) and also blogs through the Batiks for Life website as well as her personal blog “Daily Life in Ghana” (http://www.dailylifeinghana.wordpress.com/) . She has traveled extensively through all but the most western section of Ghana. She may be reached by email at abena.sara@batiksforlife.com

Virunga is Africa’s oldest national park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most bio-diverse areas on the planet. For the past three years Global Witness has been driving a major international campaign to stop oil companies drilling in Virunga and the surrounding area. We’ve also been campaigning to ensure that UK listed Soco International’s activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo are properly investigated by the relevant authorities. The Congolese – Ugandan border runs through the heart of this natural wonder and despite some victories Virunga is still under threat from oil exploration in the Congo and Uganda – where the government plans to allocate an oil licence in Lake Edward posing a direct threat to Virunga.
Virunga is a highly vulnerable ecosystem, one of the sources of both the Congo and the Nile rivers, and a vital habitat for many protected species including hippopotamus, elephants and some of the world’s last remaining mountain gorillas. Two hundred thousand local people also depend on Lake Edward, which is at the heart of Virunga’s ecosystem, for their livelihoods and their daily meal.
Speculation that commercial quantities of oil lie below the surface of Lake Edward, has resulted in repeated attempts by governments and companies to open up the area for oil drilling. Sadly these attempts are ongoing. Any oil activities in this area could lead to significant damage to the lake, the broader ecosystem and the people and animals that depend on it.

Campaigning to protect Virunga
In 2012, we published previously unseen permits that appeared to give Soco the green light to conduct a broad range of exploration activities, including seismic surveys inside the

park. Since then we have been campaigning to prevent oil drilling in Virunga and to hold Soco to account for its activities in the park.
In September 2014 we published the report ‘Drillers in the Mist’, which showed how Soco and its contractors have made illicit payments, appear to have paid off armed rebels and benefited from fear and violence fostered by government security forces in eastern Congo, as they sought access to Virunga for oil exploration. In June 2015 we published cheques showing that Soco had paid tens of thousands of dollars to a Congolese military officer accused of bribery and of brutally silencing opponents of oil exploration in the park. At the same time we produced a timeline of the key events, accusations and denials throughout Soco’s presence in Virunga. Soco is a UK public company and its executive directors are American citizens who are employed through a US subsidiary. Global Witness is therefore calling on the UK Serious Fraud Office and the US Department of Justice to fully investigate the claims of bribery and intimidation made against Soco and its contractors, and to hold any wrongdoers to account.
In late 2015, Soco announced that it had ceased to hold block 5 in Virunga. It is unclear whether the company has sold its rights to another company or whether the Congolese government plans to re-allocate the licence.
UNESCO has declared oil exploration inconsistent with World Heritage Status but Global Witness is concerned that the Congolese government may seek to re-draw the boundaries of the park to allow oil activities inside Lake Edward.

A new threat from Uganda
Now Virunga faces a new threat from an oil exploration licence in Uganda. On the 26th of February 2016 the Ugandan government will accept bids for six oil blocks in the west of Uganda. Each of these blocks includes parts of protected areas but one is of particular concern: the Ngaji block. Ngaji covers Uganda’s half of Lake Edward and large parts of Queen Elizabeth National Park, immediately adjacent to Virunga. This area forms part of the same continuous ecosystem as Virunga and UNESCO has written to the government of Uganda to express its concerns about the decision to allow drilling there.
Sixteen companies have been shortlisted by the Ugandan government to bid for the oil blocks on offer, including Ngaji. Global Witness conducted investigations into these companies and raised questions about the suitability of some of them.
Documents seen by Global Witness indicate clearly that the Congolese government would see drilling on the Ugandan side of Lake Edward as a major motivation for pushing ahead with drilling on their own side. The EU Parliament has passed a resolution on the protection of Virunga National Park calling for EU member states to help prevent oil activities in the park and neighbouring areas. It cited the Ugandan allocation as a significant risk that could cause irreversible damage to the park.
Virunga is a unique ecosystem of global significance which must be protected. Global Witness is calling for the Ngaji block to be removed from the bidding round and for UNESCO and the governments of Congo and Uganda to reach an agreement to prevent drilling in the Virunga area.

Global Witness

]]>http://amandlanews.com/protecting-virunga-national-park-from-oil-companies/feed/0Zika virus found in saliva and urinehttp://amandlanews.com/zika-virus-found-in-saliva-and-urine/
http://amandlanews.com/zika-virus-found-in-saliva-and-urine/#respondSun, 14 Feb 2016 10:59:50 +0000http://amandlanews.com/?p=4457February 6, 2016
IN a sign of mounting global concern over the Zika virus, health officials have warned pregnant women to think twice about the lips they kiss and called on men to use condoms with pregnant partners if they have visited countries where the virus is present.
UN officials also called on many Catholic-majority countries in Latin America to loosen their abortion laws to allow women to terminate pregnancies if they fear the foetus may be at risk for a rare birth defect that causes brain damage and an abnormally small head, which may be linked to the virus.The flurry of recommendations began in Brazil, where a top health official warned pregnant women to be cautious with their kisses.
Paulo Gadelha, president of the Fiocruz research institute, told a news conference that scientists have found live virus in saliva and urine samples, and the possibility it could be spread by the two body fluids requires further study.
He said that calls for pregnant women to take special precautions, and suggested they avoid kissing people other than a regular partner or sharing cutlery, glasses and plates with people who have symptoms of the virus.
“This is not a generalised public health measure, for the love of God,” he added, stressing both the seriousness of the discovery and reality that it was too soon to say how it could impact the epidemic.Friday’s announcement coincided with the start of Carnival, a five-day bacchanalia that sees millions of people take part in alcohol-fuelled parties where kissing as many people as possible is a top pastime.
Gadelha underscored that the discovery needn’t alter Carnival plans for anyone but pregnant women.
He also stressed that the Aedes aegpyti mosquito, which spreads dengue, chikungunya and yellow fever as well as Zika, remains the virus’ main vector and said the fight against the mosquito should be a top priority.
The Fiocruz team studied samples from two patients who showed symptoms of Zika and tested positive for the illness.
Tests on cell cultures showed the virus in the samples was capable of damaging the cells, meaning it was active.
Myrna Bonaldo, who headed the Fiocruz team behind the discovery, said she was particularly surprised the virus was found in urine because Zika is generally thought not to thrive in acidic mediums.
“Each discovery is a surprise and a new find for us,” she said.
“For us scientists, it’s extremely challenging to understand Zika virus.”
Experts greeted Friday’s announcement with caution, saying the sample size was small and noting little is known about how the virus spreads.Still, Dr Elizabeth Talbot, a professor of infectious diseases at Dartmouth College, said it “does create further concern.”
“This virus is clearly throwing one curve ball after the other,” she said.
Asked about the guidance to pregnant women, Dr Susan Donelan, medical director of the epidemiology department at Stony Brook University Hospital, said: “I can understand the Brazilian Health Ministry being concerned about not leaving out any potential mechanism for transmission, even if it’s theoretical.”
“Brazil is in a particularly difficult position” given the scope of the country’s microcephaly outbreak, she said.
Meanwhile, in Geneva, spokeswoman Cecile Pouilly said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights was asking governments in Zika-affected countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to repeal any policies that restrict access to sexual and reproductive health services, including abortion.
“How can they … not offer (women) … the possibility to stop their pregnancies if they wish?” she said.
Pouilly gave the example of El Salvador, where about a quarter of women had experienced physical or sexual violence in the past year.
“So that also shows that many of these pregnancies are out of their control and countries obviously have to take that into account,” she said.
Pouilly said that safe abortion services should be provided to the full extent of the law.
“The key point is that women should have the choice and (make) informed decisions,” she said.
The National Conference of Bishops in Brazil, the South American country hardest hit by Zika, had no immediate comment on calls to loosen abortion laws. However, in a statement issued Thursday, the bishops said that the World Health Organisation’s declaration earlier this week that Zika was an international emergency didn’t justify abortion.
Meanwhile, US health officials said men who have visited an area with Zika should use condoms if they have sex with a pregnant woman – for the entire duration of the pregnancy. The guidance issued on Friday also says men might consider abstaining or using condoms even if they have sex with a woman who isn’t pregnant.
Zika virus disease is mainly spread by mosquitoes. But US health officials detected a case of sexual transmission of the disease in Texas this week and in Brazil, officials said they had confirmed the virus was contracted via blood transfusions.
For most people who catch the virus, it causes mild or no symptoms.
US officials have recommended pregnant women postpone trips to more than two dozen countries with Zika outbreaks, mostly in Latin America and the Caribbean. Several Latin American nations have urged women to postpone pregnancies.
To date, the mosquito-borne virus has spread to more than 20 countries in the Americas.
One of those is Colombia, where health officials announced on Friday that three people had died of Guillain-Barre syndrome after contracting the Zika virus.
The country’s National Health Institute director, Martha Lucia Ospina, said all three victims were confirmed to have been infected with Zika, adding that their deaths show the virus can kill.
Still, most international experts are cautious about whether Zika can trigger Guillain-Barre, a rare syndrome that causes paralysis, because other infections and conditions can lead to the illness.